TheAgitator.com: Debate Prologue
The Agitator, Radley Balko, does a subperb job of breaking down the election and why the Bushman will win. Though I don't view this as a positive event or a negative event, they both suck, it does appear that Radley's who you'd rather have a beer with matters most conculision makes perfect sense. Yeah Kerry does come off as a dick and Bush a blunder, but the blunder beats a dick.
And let's face it. Kerry's a schmuck. Or at least he comes off as one. If Gore was the kid who reminded the teacher to collect the homework, Kerry's the prep school trust-funder who drives Beamer and ties a pastel Izod across his shoulders. If swing state demographics resembled Greenwich, Connecticut, he'd be golden.
I can see only one scenario where Kerry betters himself tomorrow night, and that's if he somehow goads Bush into saying something the Kerry camp can conslusively prove is false, and for which they have a post-game assault alread prepared. If Kerry's staff's post-debate message can convincingly be "Bush Lied!" instead of "No! Seriously! Our Guy Isn't a Dick!" well, then maybe he can climb a few points in the polls. But that would require a significant Bush gaffe (certainly possible), and some competence from the Kerry campaign (no signs so far that that's possible).
This fits in well with a piece that was posted at the mises.org today about the basis of freedom. The author of this piece sites a work by Converse in 1964, "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics." Converse finds that less than 4 percent of American voters can give a coherent account of what liberals and conservatives believe. These people he calls "ideologues." They understand the political division in society well, and their voting reflects it. A slightly larger group of voters partly understands and partly votes that way. A large group in the middle votes mainly by race, class, or other group affiliation. Below them is a fourth group, quite large, that votes on a politician’s looks, or whether he "cares about people like me."
Is this why democracy will one day fail? Perhaps we should have gone with the whole republic thing that the founders wanted after all.
The Agitator, Radley Balko, does a subperb job of breaking down the election and why the Bushman will win. Though I don't view this as a positive event or a negative event, they both suck, it does appear that Radley's who you'd rather have a beer with matters most conculision makes perfect sense. Yeah Kerry does come off as a dick and Bush a blunder, but the blunder beats a dick.
And let's face it. Kerry's a schmuck. Or at least he comes off as one. If Gore was the kid who reminded the teacher to collect the homework, Kerry's the prep school trust-funder who drives Beamer and ties a pastel Izod across his shoulders. If swing state demographics resembled Greenwich, Connecticut, he'd be golden.
I can see only one scenario where Kerry betters himself tomorrow night, and that's if he somehow goads Bush into saying something the Kerry camp can conslusively prove is false, and for which they have a post-game assault alread prepared. If Kerry's staff's post-debate message can convincingly be "Bush Lied!" instead of "No! Seriously! Our Guy Isn't a Dick!" well, then maybe he can climb a few points in the polls. But that would require a significant Bush gaffe (certainly possible), and some competence from the Kerry campaign (no signs so far that that's possible).
This fits in well with a piece that was posted at the mises.org today about the basis of freedom. The author of this piece sites a work by Converse in 1964, "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics." Converse finds that less than 4 percent of American voters can give a coherent account of what liberals and conservatives believe. These people he calls "ideologues." They understand the political division in society well, and their voting reflects it. A slightly larger group of voters partly understands and partly votes that way. A large group in the middle votes mainly by race, class, or other group affiliation. Below them is a fourth group, quite large, that votes on a politician’s looks, or whether he "cares about people like me."
Is this why democracy will one day fail? Perhaps we should have gone with the whole republic thing that the founders wanted after all.
posted by Champion at 11:46 PM
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